Saving the Ifugao rice terraces, and their agrobiodiversity.
Prof. Jack Hawkes
Prof. Jack Hawkes, a pioneer and a giant of the science — and practice — of plant genetic resources conservation and use, is dead at 92.
International Kitchen Garden Day
Did you know there’s an International Kitchen Garden Day on the fourth Sunday of August each year? Neither did I, but it’s a good way of celebrating agrobiodiversity, isn’t it? Anyway, I got to hear about it via a wiki on Sustainable Community Action that Danny has just blogged about over at Rurality.
Access and benefit sharing discussed… again
All too often it seems as if the “debate” on access to genetic resources (and the sharing of the benefits derived from access and use ((Together known as “access and benefit sharing,” or ABS.)) mostly consists of people talking past each other. Today we have, from the animal genetic resources conference at Interlaken, a statement to the effect that the talking is coming at the expense of urgent action on conservation. Meanwhile, we have more talking from an international workshop in Beijing on genetic resources and indigenous knowledge, ((Held in Beijing on 4 September, but I can’t find further information about it on the CBD website, or anywhere else for that matter! Maybe someone out there can educate me?)) where Gurdial Singh Nijar, a law professor at the University of Malaya in Malaysia, said that:
Developing countries are losing out because their laws do not specify which resources should be paid for and how… This is due to the lack of a legal definition of what constitutes payable genetic resources, and clarity on who owns these resources: national governments or local communities of origin.
Scottish oaks
Protecting an ancient oak forest in Scotland.